Bbc Radio 5 Live: Housing Benefits And Social Landlords

[GordonBrownSpentMyFuture]

Forum favourite Victoria Derbyshire is discussing this now. Discussing high rents, affordable housing, etc. Some great comments just now from a London landlord who said they'd had it too good.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/

10:00 - 12:00

Call 0500 909 693

Text 85058 cost info

Email victoria@bbc.co.uk

[GordonBrownSpentMyFuture]

I may have just caught the tail end of it - discussing the Leveson Inquiry right now - but she asked for comments so I'm guessing she'll be coming back to it at some point...

[Conrad]

Very interesting , Grant Schapps stated several times that the cost of housing AND house prices in this country are too expensive. He does appear to acknowledge the issue....

[juvenal]

Nice to hear Shapps saying 'House prices are too high..', but you never hear the presenter follow up with: "So why is the government doing everything it can to support them?"

[GordonBrownSpentMyFuture]

Now on iPlayer...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ghtp7/Victoria_Derbyshire_24_04_2012/

0:24:10 - 0:40:46 (Grant Shapps from 0:28:00 to 0:40:46)

0:52:20 - 1:02:02

1:10:32 - 1:12:30

1:21:46 - 1:27:12

1:29:20 - 1:37:20

A very interesting listen.

It would seem the UK is finally waking up to the fact that its housing is too expensive.

[Democorruptcy]

Nice to hear Shapps saying 'House prices are too high..', but you never hear the presenter follow up with: "So why is the government doing everything it can to support them?"

Watch what they do not listen to what they say

[Pent Up]

Watch what they do not listen to what they say

Old Shappsie wants 20+ years of "price stability" whilst wages catch up. He's far from on our side.

[SleepyHead]

Listening to that, it's fair to say the UK housing market is in total chaos and its going to get much worse from here on.

Imagine what it will look like when Greek style cuts start being "needed" to continue the bank bailouts.

[timebandit]

Depends on the audience, no mention of cheaper housing, in his speech today at the HBF annual industry lunch.

The boxed-in generation

Date of speech 24 April 2012

Location Marriott Grosvenor Square Hotel, London

Event summary Home Builders Federation Annual industry lunch

Draft text of the speech - may differ from the delivered version.

Introduction

They say a week is a long time in politics.

So it's hard to believe that it's almost five years since I took on the housing brief, first in opposition and now in Government.

And the experience has given me a few insights into this great industry which I thought would be worth sharing today.

The housing paradox

But, first, let me start with a paradox.

In the last decade we built far fewer houses than needed.

Houses prices soared but, by 2009, house building had fallen to its lowest level since the 1920s.

The noughties was a decade of missed opportunities.

It wasn't as if we stopped wanting new homes.

You couldn't turn the telly on without seeing another house related programme: Changing Rooms, Grand Designs, The Restoration Man.

Yet the housing market ground to a halt.

And the problem was clear. The people weren't to blame. It was the system.

You could see the system at work, or failing to work, in any one of those TV property programmes.

The red tape people had to cut through. The endless regulations. The interminable delays.

Energy, enthusiasm, determination - dissipated. Willingness to stake out the new property frontiers - frustrated.

It was enough to stir up your inner builder.

Trouble was, in the past, the centre talked a good game but did little to change the environment.

Building more houses

Now our solution to this housing problem is simple - we're going to build more houses. Not talk about it. But do it.

We've learnt the lessons of the past.

Government alone won't get the market started.

So this will be a team effort.

The NewBuy Guarantee Scheme is a case in point.

We're giving up to 100,000 prospective buyers up to 95 per cent loan to value mortgage to purchase new build properties.

Great idea. I know you agree. Because you came up with it.

Now we're determined to let you get on with it.

No builders are excluded from NewBuy by design and we won't intervene in the commercial arrangements of builders and lenders.

With more lenders and builders coming on board, customers will have a wide range of options to choose from when buying their newly-built home.

Just this week, in Cambridgeshire, we welcomed the first buyer to purchase a home through the scheme.

A boxed in generation

Now NewBuy can also help a group of people who've often been overlooked.

Traditionally the political debate has focused on the people at the very bottom and the people at the very top.

But what about those stuck in between?

Those who slip, not so much under the radar, as between the lines.

Second time buyers in flats or houses who have outgrown their homes.

Who doesn't know someone like this?

A hardworking person who bought their own home when they were single, maybe met someone, fell in love, and now have a couple of kids.

They expected to trade up.

That's what their parents would have done after all.

But now they're boxed in.

Home outgrown.

They don't have cash to pay for a mortgage three or four times their own salary. Let alone 10 or 20 times.

They face the prospect of being boxed in their homes for up to 25 years or more.

According to HSBC research, of the 360,000 homeowners who bought their first property in 2007, many are trapped in their first home and unable to move up the property ladder.

What does it say about our system that we've a generation who feel forgotten?

That nearly a third of parents feel boxed in, unable to live comfortably in a home too small for their family needs.

That their children will have moved on by the time they move out.

We don't want Britain to be a place of housing have nots.

We want people to have room to grow.

So the NewBuy Guarantee gives second time buyers a second chance.

The boxed in family now gets help.

Help to buy a new build home with the ceiling price set up to a half a million pound.

So well done.

You're thinking outside the box.

Bringing down house waiting times.

Rolling back the housing frontier.

And we're keen to work with the industry in other ways.

The lack of sufficient land to build new homes is a drag on housing growth.

So we're accelerating the release of brownfield Government-owned land to deliver more than 100,000 homes over the Spending Review period.

Working with local authorities

And Government isn't just working with builders but with local authorities.

Our new Homes Bonus incentivises local authorities to increase their housing stock, bring more empty houses back into use, and raise the bar for affordable homes.

When there are extra homes, authorities will get a bonus to take the strain on their services and infrastructure.

These changes will make it easier for communities to accept new housing. As will our plans to improve neighbourhood design.

More of this in a moment.

Working with communities

Besides local authorities we're working with communities.

Neighbourhood Planning and the Community Right to Buy will help communities deliver the development they want.

Thirty years on from the introduction of Right to Buy for council tenants, we're also increasing their buying power.

With a maximum discount to £75,000 across the country - quadrupling the potential amount available in London and trebling it elsewhere.

With the proceeds providing cash that's helping build new homes for affordable rent.

Collaboration - the industry and communities

But this isn't just about Government.

About them and us.

It's about you.

I want to see the house building industry working hand in glove with local communities.

I know you feel frustrated waiting for the planning green light.

Shovels poised.

Diggers at the ready.

Weeks slowly turning into months.

So we're helping remedy this situation by providing you with a 12 month planning decision guarantee.

But in return there's something you can do to help.

Part of the trouble is local communities sometimes see things at the last minute.

It takes them time to get their heads round what's proposed.

So, in the National Planning Policy Framework, we're requiring you to consult earlier.

And we're asking you to think about design.

Now Britain is great at building.

Just a short walk from here is the magnificent Derby House designed by Robert Adam. One of many examples of Britain's fantastic building heritage.

But if we want great neighbourhoods as well as great buildings we need great designs that take people with them.

Down in Devon they've got the right idea.

Local Totnes residents opposed the developer's original proposal for a mixed-use residential development on the edge of town.

But working together the council, residents and the local architect devised a fitting alternative.

The door to planning permission was flung open and houses delivered that people wanted to buy.

The lesson is clear. Great design helps communities accept your work and speed up the system.

Later this year, I'll be setting out plans to give communities a greater voice and encourage joint working at a Government/Industry Design Summit.

Conclusion

So I've given you a flavour of what we're doing to build more homes.

We're already turning things around.

Since 2009 starts are up by 24 per cent.

New housing output is up by 33 per cent.

And new orders are up by 35 per cent.

We're unfreezing the system. But we need you to help us move further, faster.

To work with communities to design sustainable local schemes.

To react speedily when freed up land becomes available.

To tell us what else we can do to help.

To usher in a new age of housing.

An age of magnificent homes to match our ambition.

An age that gives a boxed in generation room to grow.

[PatientlyWaiting]

At least they appear to be doing something about the problem. They've got a lot to do to stop me voting either UKIP or BNP (the raze the country to the ground within 2 years, so we can rebuild from the ashes option) at the next general election. Tick fracking tock ...

[Democorruptcy]

With more lenders and builders coming on board, customers will have a wide range of options to choose from when buying their newly-built home

They have one option.

Pay too much for it to protect the banks who deliberately persuaded those who bought in the boom to pay too much.

Now the banks get their reward because anyone buying with a mortgage has to pay so much interest.

[Son of Taeper]

I'm thinking this has all gone on for way too long.

Margaret Thatcher did way more to provide jobs and affordable housing in my opinion.

Not sure how many years labour had the same chance to look after the nation, but once again the conservative government get to pick up the pieces.

Anyone that voted Labour over the past era need only blame themselves.

[RufflesTheGuineaPig]

Very interesting , Grant Schapps stated several times that the cost of housing AND house prices in this country are too expensive. He does appear to acknowledge the issue....

Nice to hear Shapps saying 'House prices are too high..'

When the emperor is stood before the people naked, it isn't wise to proclaim with conviction how nice his outfit is when everyone can clearly see he is butt naked and has a small knob, as you will look like you are an idiot.

They've got a lot to do to stop me voting either UKIP or BNP (the raze the country to the ground within 2 years, so we can rebuild from the ashes option) at the next general election.

What makes you think they would "raze the country to the ground within 2 years". Certainly most of the BNP manifesto make complete sense and could have been written by anyone on here. It merely has the problem that someone later wrote "and we hate da gayz and niggaz" on the bottom in purple crayon just before it went to the printers.

A significant number on BNP MPs would actually be good for the country - there is no way they could get racist or homophobic legislation through without an outright majority, so we would be safe there. They would, however, act as an alternative voice to the politicians currently in power who are under the control of the money men, since the money men would never wish to be seen funding the BNP. MPs who can't be "bought" because it's too embarrassing having them back your proposal!

Compare them to what people on here propose... cut the international aid, no more EU, no more money for the IMF, zero immigration, no more tax benefits for off-shoring, no more hiding money in tax havens. Pure HPC fodder.

But sadly there's always that guy with the Crayons.

[tomandlu]

It merely has the problem that someone later wrote "and we hate da gayz and niggaz" on the bottom in purple crayon just before it went to the printers.

That's a fairly significant problem. Apart from the issue of what sort of politicians would sign up to a party with that kind of stated aim, there is also the issue of what signal do you send to other parties by increasing the vote for such a party?

For a shake-up vote, go UKIP IMHO.

[Fishbone Glover]

Grant Shapps said:

The NewBuy Guarantee Scheme is a case in point.

We're giving up to 100,000 prospective buyers up to 95 per cent loan to value mortgage to purchase new build properties.

Great idea. I know you agree. Because you came up with it.

No doubt one of the brilliant ideas to help FTB's, conceived at the helping FTB meeting which, funnily enough, no FTB's were invited to...

I don't think Shappsy is on our side, he's most likely to be on the side of those with the money and the influence to help him with his parliamentary career, at the end of the day he is a politician.

[Fishbone Glover]

For a shake-up vote, go UKIP IMHO.

I think that's the only viable option at the moment, whilst the BNP does have some sensible policies the other elements of that organisation rule out voting for them.

[Democorruptcy]

Shapps showed his true colours at the NHBC lunch in 2010 with this one about lending and the FSA mortgage review

Mr Shapps said: "I think it was about the moment I realised that I wouldn't have a mortgage if the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) changes went through that I kind of thought that this might be going a step too far."

He continued: "There is no point in closing the door after the horse has bolted. The whole problem with the mortgage market wasn't a pernickety thing about whether you could lend X or Y to a person, or what form you had to get a borrower to sign. It was because there was a lack of effective central regulation on how the banks were operating." He added that "What's required here is proper, sensible top-level regulation – not pernickety down-in-the-dirt what can you do what can't you do as a mortgage company."

He told his audience that he hoped that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) "will be getting that message from you and everyone else. They are of course independent, but I think it's very important that we learn the lessons of the past without repeating them – which is what they are in danger of doing."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/i-would-have-been-denied-mortgage-says-minister-2145051.html

The banks weren't regulated but regulation is pernickety if it stops people getting a mortgage.

[mrtickle]

Now on iPlayer...

http://www.bbc.co.uk...ire_24_04_2012/

0:24:10 - 0:40:46 (Grant Shapps from 0:28:00 to 0:40:46)

0:52:20 - 1:02:02

1:10:32 - 1:12:30

1:21:46 - 1:27:12

1:29:20 - 1:37:20

A very interesting listen.

It would seem the UK is finally waking up to the fact that its housing is too expensive.

Thankyou very much for taking the time to note those times - VERY much appreciated here!

[Self Employed Youth]

37:00 in.

"Do you have to live on £55 a week?"

I've been living on £53.45! Only now with the CPI inflation (was previously RPI) adjusted annual increase of JSA do I get £56.25 and believe you me, that doesn't buy as much food! (It's like my rations have been cut - and monopoly currency might as well be in the form of rations when combined with state subsidy like it is at the minute!)

And technically the guy who has to pay £15 a week out of his dole unto rent, on top of his [up to] £250/week hb, would be left with £56.50 a week out of his [now]£71.50 a week JSA , which is actually 25p more per week than the April 2012 youth dole rate of 56.25 per week. These people been condemned to the SRR (and now also under 35s).

I'd have like to join that convo.

£55 a week!

Says the man with 56.50 to the man with 56.25 (possibly less another 15!), whom is accustomed to the extra tenner unto of your £50 come the thrice week, arsing from the 53.45 a week payment.

And I'd have brought up the RPI+0.5% + up to £2 week increase in the cost of 'social/affordable housing' thus forcing up the cost of it in real terms (making affordable housing unaffordable!) - which ultimately drives up the average cost of housing and thus LHA - thus the cost of housing in the private sector.

And then I would have argued for offering land grants instead of housing benefit up in the Highlands for people to build their own! Before getting cut off for mentioning CAP payments, if I ever got that far in the first place haha.

Edited April 24, 2012 by Seasonally Employed Youth

[@contradevian]

I think that's the only viable option at the moment, whilst the BNP does have some sensible policies the other elements of that organisation rule out voting for them.

The only option is NOT TO VOTE at all.

All bought and paid for. The cast may change but the dismal plotline won't.

[Self Employed Youth]

Here is a single mother, Vicki in Northhampton,

on housing benefit>

Well, Nicki, do you work?

YES I DO.

And there lies the problem. Not even the workers can afford accomodation!

We have homeless brickies for crying out loud.

(The oft [and oft repeated previously on 5live] argument being that the taxpayer [read worker] subsidies the idle - through housing. With the reality being the taxpayer subsidises housing through the forced [structural] unemployed. And the taxpayer isn't necessarily the law abiding PAYE worker. The duty is on alcohol is very high. An alcoholic working cash in hand is most likely to be a net taxpayer, whilst most legitimate workers aren't.

[Self Employed Youth]

Thankyou very much for taking the time to note those times - VERY much appreciated here!

+1

thanks

GordonBrownSpentMyFuture,

[GordonBrownSpentMyFuture]

Thankyou very much for taking the time to note those times - VERY much appreciated here!

+1

thanks

GordonBrownSpentMyFuture,

You're very welcome.

[timebandit]

Thank you for the editing GBSMF, I do try and avoid Derbyshire, health reasons

.

A cabbie opinion of Grant shapps NSFW